1991 World Student Games

The World Student Games are a perfect opportunity to showcase new talent — and for fans to smugly spot great athletes before they are famous. But in the case of the 1991 games in Sheffield, England, onlookers saw a disastrous opening ceremony that was anything but great. The first British astronaut, Helen Sharman, who had recently returned from a trip to the Mir space station, must have still been finding her feet on terra firma: as she jogged around the track, she stumbled and dropped the torch, extinguishing the flame. Houston — or, in this case, Sheffield — we have a problem.